I had some lossless .wma files that I wanted to convert to .flac, but Sound Converter was giving me issues and couldn't accomplish the task. So I did some digging and found a way to do on the Ubuntu forums. I thought I'd pass along this info in case it might help someone else. Here is the link to the original post I found the info at:

Step 4: Now right click on the wma audio file in Nautilus and you will see a "Scripts" option with a "ConvertAudioFile" option. Use this to convert the wma to wav.Step 5: Now use the program Sound Converter to convert the wav to flac.

This was the easiest method I could find, and worked really well. I'm sure there are other methods to accomplish the same task as well, and if you've got one post it up. The more info we can share with each other the better.

Husse, great idea making this a sticky. This is really useful for lossless tracks that someone might have ripped in Windows Media Player, and now no longer has the original CD's. That was exactly my situation. I had ripped some of my CD's as .wma lossless several years ago. Two of those CD's left along with an old girlfriend. Using this method allowed me to maintain the music in true lossless quality, but dump the Microsoft proprietary format.

i mostly use pacpl, its cli but got a simple syntax. I use it to convert ogg,mp3 and flac to wav, but i think it supports wma too:http://pacpl.sourceforge.net/(its in the repos, i just added the link to give some info)

syntax i use is:pacpl --to wav --outputdir . *flac(convert all flac-files in the current directory to wav and save the result here, in the working directory (.) )

--the side/page says it may also be embedded into the gui (amorak,konqueror etc). i didnt know that.

nadir wrote:i mostly use pacpl, its cli but got a simple syntax. I use it to convert ogg,mp3 and flac to wav, but i think it supports wma too:http://pacpl.sourceforge.net/(its in the repos, i just added the link to give some info)syntax i use is:

(convert all flac-files in the current directory to wav and save the result here, in the working directory (.) )

I did a huge batch of .wma files for a friend a couple of years back (think 700+ CDs ripped and stored on an external HDD). I used ffmpeg, surprisingly enough.Were you doing the same, having copied them into your ~/Music folder:

You end up with .flac files, all in the same directories as the originals.To zap the originals at the same time, add -exec rm '{}' \; to the end of the command. Do remember to do a trial run with a duplicated album directory and make sure everything plays fine.

From looking on the Ubuntu forums, wma support may still not yet be present in 64-bit versions of ffmpeg; but you can always boot from a 32-bit CD or DVD to do the conversion work.

This method has the advantage of going straight from wma to flac. Unless you're an audiophile, the sensible next move is to convert to high-bitrate ogg. If you're dealing with a huge collection (and, this was a huge collection - you could put it on random play, 24hrs a day, and never hear the same track twice in a month) the command-line method is the one I'd recommend. You can leave a terminal window minimised chomping through all of the tracks whilst you use the machine for other stuff.

— Old, scary-looking geek at your dis-service. Bailing out of Airship Ubuntu; pilot took wrong drugs!Trying Mint 9, 12 in VMs — Looking for Mint Studio (hint)"That which does not kill you has made a tactical error" — Maxim 35

godsotherhand wrote:why would you convert wav to flac? you dont get the quality back..

FLAC is known as LOSSLESS COMPRESSION.

That means you get a compressed file and thus a smaller size than the WAV file but absolutely NO audio quality is lost.

In fact if you compress a WAV to FLAC and then from FLAC to WAV the new WAV is 100% identical to the original WAV

MP3 and AAC and OGG are LOSSY COMPRESSION in that the file is compressed in such a way that audio quality is lost and it can then never be regained (from that file).

Anyway that is why FLAC is so popular. Smaller size yet no loss in quality. I should point out that FLAC will never be as small in file size as MP3 or AAC or OGG but it is smaller than the WAV while giving the same quality as the WAV

FF Multi Converter is what you're looking for. FF Multi Converter is a simple graphical application that enables you to convert audio, video, image and document files between all popular formats, using and combining other programs. It uses ffmpeg for audio/video files, unoconv for document files and PythonMagick library for image file conversions. Common conversion options for each file type are provided. Recursive conversions are available too.

Features: * Conversions for several file formats. * Very easy to use interface. * Access to common conversion options. * Options for saving and naming files. * Recursive conversions

FF Multi Converter 1.4.0 is the latest version that has been released recently bringing more improvements and adding support for more file formats. Multi-Converter is a simple GUI that allows users to convert between many file formats such as audio, video, document and image formats.

FF-Multi-Converter 1.4.0 Installation

To install FF-Multi-Converter 1.4.0 on Linux Mint 13 (Maya) or older or Ubuntu 12.10/12.04 or older, open the terminal and run the following commands:

Brahim wrote:FF Multi Converter is what you're looking for. FF Multi Converter is a simple graphical application that enables you to convert audio, video, image and document files between all popular formats, using and combining other programs. It uses ffmpeg for audio/video files, unoconv for document files and PythonMagick library for image file conversions. Common conversion options for each file type are provided. Recursive conversions are available too.

Features: * Conversions for several file formats. * Very easy to use interface. * Access to common conversion options. * Options for saving and naming files. * Recursive conversions

FF Multi Converter 1.4.0 is the latest version that has been released recently bringing more improvements and adding support for more file formats. Multi-Converter is a simple GUI that allows users to convert between many file formats such as audio, video, document and image formats.

FF-Multi-Converter 1.4.0 Installation

To install FF-Multi-Converter 1.4.0 on Linux Mint 13 (Maya) or older or Ubuntu 12.10/12.04 or older, open the terminal and run the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get install ffmulticonverterE: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

by Brianivander on Fri Dec 07, 2012 12:52 am I've tried to install ffmulticonverter. But this is what I got when I type sudo apt-get install ffmulticonverter:

Code: Select all $ sudo apt-get install ffmulticonverter E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable) E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

Any help? thanks !

This means the apt is busy. You cannot install 2 packages at the same time. If this is the case, than close the software/synaptic/terminal and keep only one instance of terminal open( run only one command line at a time) and retry the installation. If this doesn't fix the issue than try this:

How about using Winff. It is a frontend for FFMPEG and is found in the ubuntu repository. You need to create a preset for flac, but it works great once you do that. In the last few days I have converted many files including: MP4 to FLAC and FLAC to OGG/MP3.